OBTEST, EASTERN FRONT, ICENI & NECROSADISTIC GOAT TORTURE –
LONDON ELECTROWERKZ 27/01/10
It’s a night of heathen battles and patriotism with tonight being billed at the last minute as ‘65th Anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz.’ I wasn’t expecting tonight to be rammed with Obtest being only just on the peripherals of my radar and for gigs like this one local support bands are more vital than ever. Necrosadistic Goat Torture no doubt serve their purpose of bringing one or two extra paying punters through the door but their brand of death-thrash does nothing to inspire. Tracks like ‘Final Aeon’ are thrashed out with goat-torturing brutality but as GoatManiac whips his hair about it would appear the band are enjoying their set far more than those watching. To say they are a bad live act would be unfair; they are a tight unit even if what they offer is nothing new. Perhaps supporting Obituary they’d do fine, but on a line up of hardened warriors this goat gets swallowed whole. (LH)
It was pointed out to me that I had actually reviewed 1st demo by Iceni when they were a one man band under the name of Axiom. It was instantly evident tonight that they had come one hell of a long way since then and were mightily impressive even when forging out the venues oft chaotic sound system. The words ‘barbarian wrath’ and ‘heathen cleave’ instantly sprang to mind as these warriors foraged away and I was also impressed with moments of mesmerising acoustic grace interspersing the gung ho feudal parts. The band still only have two demos behind them with nothing released since 2007. I guess they have a master plan but apparently they are only working on a 3rd demo after just finding a new drummer. They deserve a label and a proper album on the strength of what I heard tonight and the violent call to arms of ‘Liberty To The Fallen;’ these were declarations of intent up there with the likes of Wodensthrone and Winterfyllth and with the confrontational and passionate display here it is high time to start taking Albion’s tribes more seriously. (PW)
Eastern Front are a band I have been hankering to see for some time now, having played up the road from me in Wakefield a number of times but just always managing to miss for one reason or another. This lot come on looking poised for the battlefield and ‘Unleash the Panzer Division’ with a performance as sharp and as deadly as a collision with a truck-load of barbed wire. Front man Nargant commands the stage well, backing up the highly photogenic image with a war-torn rasp and on-stage manner that will have the enemy surrendering completely; you certainly would back down if he came at you with those spikes on and I think the ghoulish bass-player with his two black eyes serves well as a warning to us all! The rhythm section builds a wall of sound that is completely impervious with Holocaust and Destroyer throwing out some truly menacing riffs. ‘Blood On Snow’ is a real highlight, it’s slow and rather hypnotic rhythm driving things along just nicely and there’s a feeling of anguish embedded within the icy fury. There are few times when I’ll say the support bands blow the headliners off stage, but tonight was definitely one of them with Eastern Front giving the performance of the evening. (LH)
There is no denying that people are passionate about Obtest, in fact we had been in the pub before the show with some that were perhaps amongst their greatest UK fans and had been looking forward to the show since it was announced. Never did find out their reaction but as far as I am concerned I felt like perhaps I was missing something here. The venue on a Weds night with Marduk in town the night after was never going to be rammed and the Lithuanians are probably not that well known over here but there was a bit of atmosphere lacking. One guy had been carrying around a big Obtest flag pennant all evening and was apparently living in London but from Lithuania originally, another couple of people were even over for the show by the seem of things. The message was conveyed to one of them that his hand signals were not politically correct especially on the day of the 65th Anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz which the event was marking (he claimed baffled ignorance). As for the band themselves they filled the stage and had no problem making the best of the turnout, which was probably a lot better than some of the rest of the dates they had played in the UK and Ireland before it.
The drums thundered and cymbals crashed and singer Baalberith thrust his fist in the air. A new song was announced but in a language that I have little grasp of so titles are not specifically easy to share. I was struck by the fact that the band were really into what they were doing and they were going down well with some here and I bet in Europe in front of a couple of hundred plus they go down a storm but I just couldn’t get into the swing of things and to be honest had not on hearing 2005 release Iš Kartos I Karta in the past. We actually got one from that and it was kindly announced in English as ‘Spells.’ They followed this with ‘The Last Blink’ which did get most here into a head-banging frenzy and again I wondered why this was just not doing it for me. I think at the end of the day it is just like those other bands that so many like and I just don’t get, Thyrfing and Amon Amarth spring to mind, guess I am just a weekend warrior. (PW)
Luci Herbert & Pete Woods
Click here for photographs
MTUK HOME
